Gordon Nuttall - Political Career

Political Career

Nuttall won the seat of Sandgate at the 1992 state election as the Labor candidate, succeeding the retiring former Labor Opposition leader, Nev Warburton. He was previously an organiser for the Electrical Trades Union.

He served in the Beattie Ministry as:

• Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier with special responsibilities for Multicultural Affairs (29 June 1998 – 17 February 2001);
• Minister for Industrial Relations (22 February 2001 – 12 February 2004);
• Minister for Health (12 February 2004 – 28 July 2005); and
• Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries (28 July 2005 – 7 December 2005).

In 2004 he attempted to become Deputy Premier with a plan to overthrow the then Premier, Peter Beattie. However, a leadership challenge received no support from then Deputy Premier Anna Bligh, whom Nuttall proposed as the new Premier. Ms Bligh later said, "I didn't see it as any serious proposition that would have received any support from my colleagues and it didn't receive any support from myself."

In July 2005, he resigned as Minister for Health following media exposure of problems at Bundaberg Base Hospital. In June 2010, following a number of investigations, the hospital's director of surgery, Jayant Patel, was convicted and jailed for seven years on three counts of manslaughter and one count of grievous bodily harm to patients in his care. Nuttall blamed the system he had inherited as well as the administrators at the hospital for the situation which had arisen, but ultimately stepped-down from the health portfolio. Premier Peter Beattie opted to take over the portfolio himself, relocating Nuttall to the primary industries and fisheries portfolio.

In August 2005, Nuttall stepped aside from the Ministry while the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) investigated claims he had given a false answer to a Parliamentary estimates committee regarding his prior knowledge of problems with overseas-trained doctors. The Commission reported back in December 2005, recommending the Attorney-General prosecute Nuttall under section 57 of the Criminal Code. The prosecution was not proceeded with; the government decided to revoke the relevant section of the Criminal Code so Parliament could deal with such matters itself under contempt of parliament provisions.

Nuttall resigned from the Ministry on 7 December 2005 and retired from Parliament at the September 2006 election. He resigned from the Labor Party on 12 December 2006 before he was referred to the party's Disputes Tribunal, which could have expelled him.